Category Archives: Investigative journalism

A reporter’s battle to see the diary of former Health Secretary Andrew Lansley went all the way to the Court of Appeal – which ordered the government to reveal nearly all of it. It covered the period when the minister was working on a major shake-up of the NHS. The case highlights several reasons why Freedom of Information is considered important to journalism and the public interest. Read more

An online tool launched in June 2017 charts attacks on press freedom, across the European Union and associated countries. They include a cyber attack on an investigative website in Leicester, and a ban on local media attending Swindon Town Football Club press conferences. Find it here.

The government promised to make no changes to Freedom of Information law after a review found it was working well. Journalists mounted a campaign against feared restrictions; top universities and local government complained that it was too big a burden. Read more

Editors, media organisations, a lawyer and a former police chief have supported Press Gazette’s Save Our Sources campaign, launched after the Metropolitan Police used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to search The Sun’s phone records in secret.

Prosecutors dropped a criminal case that arose from an investigation by the undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood, who had been suspended by The Sun over the collapsed Tulisa trial (Press Gazette). Read more

Press Gazette launched a campaign to protect news sources after revelations that the police considered it legal to secretly obtain journalists’ phone records. It said it breached the right to freedom of expression, which included the right to protect sources (September 2014). Read more

Nick Davies, who exposed phone hacking, said police should have gone before a judge to justify examining a Sun journalist’s phone records. He said journalists targeted by public authorities should check whether their records had been snooped on. Read more